Covid-19 outbreak 2020

McDonald's announced it would halt its dine-in reopening plans for at least three weeks, as 32 states see a rise in Covid-19 infections. The company urges its restaurants to carefully review state guidance if the closure of indoor service was required and continue to follow social distance and hygiene protocols.

The United States reported its highest daily case count with around 50,000 new confirmed Covid-19 infections on Wednesday. Several states, including California, Texas and Georgia, hit single-day case records.

New Zealand Health Minister David Clark has resigned, saying it has become “increasingly clear to me that my continuation in the role is distracting from the government’s overall response to Covid-19.” Clark had been previously seen breaching lockdown measures.

“David has come to the conclusion his presence in the role is creating an unhelpful distraction from the Government’s ongoing response to Covid-19 and wider health reforms,” Jacinda Ardern responded to his resignation. “It’s essential our health leadership has the confidence of the New Zealand public. As David has said to me the needs of the team must come before him as an individual.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered the closure of indoor businesses such as restaurants, theatres and museums amid rising numbers of Covid-19 infections. The new shutdown applies to 19 counties and will remain in place for at least three weeks.

"The bottom line is the spread of this virus continues at a rate that is particularly concerning," so Newsom in a video news conference. "We’ve seen increased activity where people simply aren’t able to practice social distancing."

Alitalia on Wednesday resumed international flights from Milan Malpensa airport to Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and London, as Italy gradually reopens its airports to foreign travellers and scraps restrictions imposed to contain the Covid-19 outbreak.

Also, during this month, the company will start flying to a dozen domestic destinations from Milan Malpensa.

With the reopening of the Disney Resort in Tokyo, all of Disney's Asian parks have reopened as of July 1. Disneyland in Shanghai has opened its doors for visitors in May and Disneyland Hong Kong welcomed visitors back in June. Visitors have to follow social distancing rules and wear masks at all times. Disneyland Tokyo and Japan's DisneySea parks have introduced further safety guidelines such as mandatory temperature checks, advanced ticket bookings and no physical interaction with actors.

One of the two drugs that have been approved for the treatment of Covid-19, Remedesivir, has been bought up by the United States. For the next three months, there will most likely be almost no supply for other countries. According to Dr Andrew Hill from Liverpool University, the United States "got access to most of the drug supply" of Remdesivir. Over 500,000 doses have been bought.

Alex Azar, the United States health and human services secretary has stated that "to the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs Remdesivir can get it. The Trump administration is doing everything in our power to learn more about life-saving therapeutics for Covid-19 and secure access to these options for the American people".

In a statement released on Tuesday, Airbus announced it would be cutting around 15,000 jobs over the next twelve months as the company experiences a plunge in demand for new aircraft. The European Aerospace corporation has production facilities in Spain, the UK and Germany and employs over 134,000 people globally.

"Airbus is grateful for the government support that has enabled the company to limit these necessary adaptation measures," the statement read. "However with air traffic not expected to recover to pre-Covid levels before 2023 and potentially as late as 2025, Airbus now needs to take additional measures to reflect the post Covid-19 industry outlook."

Dr Anthony Fauci warned Congress on Tuesday that, if the country doesn't take any action quickly against the current rise of Covid-19, the situation in the United States "could get very bad."

"We're going in the wrong direction," so Fauci. "We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around."

Fauci attributes the surge in new cases to people not following guidelines as well as lifting restrictions too soon and too quickly. He further urges younger people to not think that they are "invulnerable" to the disease.

Arizona is closing a broad range of business again as the state sees a rising number of Covid-19 infections. Among the businesses affected are bars, gyms, theatres and water parks.

"Our expectation is that next week, our numbers will be worse," Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said. "It will take several weeks for the mitigations we are putting in place to take effect."

The British Government has imposed a tight lockdown on the English city of Leicester after a local increase on the number of Covid-19 cases. The lockdown mandates all non-essential shops to close on Tuesday, and schools will follow closing on Thursday.

On Monday evening, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons the city had "10% of all positive cases in the country over the past week". He also said that "We recommend to people in Leicester, stay at home as much as you can, and we recommend against all but essential travel to, from and within Leicester."

The Chinese military has developed a Covid-19 vaccine in its research unit together with the biotech firm CanSino Biologics. The vaccine has now been approved for military use as it shows a "good safety profile". Currently, the approval has been granted for one year as the studies are not fully conclusive and the vaccine only shows the potential to prevent symptoms from the Covid-19 infections. CanSino Biologics has also stated that it can't guarantee public access to the vaccine.

The Broadway in New York City will remain closed for the remainder of the year and are not expecting to open their doors until late Winter or early Spring 2021. The Broadway League, the organisation representing theatres, issued a statement that ticket holders would get a refund or could exchange their tickets for a future date.

All Broadway theatres have been closed since March 12, calling the closure "the only intermission."

The European Union has named 14 countries whose citizens are deemed "safe" to be let in from July 1, and the only Latin American country is Uruguay.

As infection rates in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia are still high, their nationals will face travel restrictions.

The current list is formed by Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.

Cirque du Soleil has filed for creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act in Quebec, Canada on Monday. The Montreal-based company stated that the Covid-19 pandemic had caused "immense disruption and forced show closures," including six shows in Las Vegas and 10 shows on tour worldwide.

"For the past 36 years, Cirque du Soleil has been a highly successful and profitable organization. However, with zero revenues since the forced closure of all of our shows due to COVID-19, management had to act decisively to protect the company's future," so president and CEO Daniel Lamarre said in a statement.

Cirque du Soleil has received $300 million in funding from Quebec's major institutional investors and multinational private equity firms to "support a successful restart, provide relief for Cirque du Soleil's affected employees and partners, and assume certain of the company's outstanding liabilities."

The company also announced the termination of approximately 3,480 employees previously furloughed in March.

Under the motto 'Good and healthy work', workers from six Amazon locations in Germany will start a 48-hour strike on Monday, according to Verdi labour union. The affected sites are in Leipzig, Bad Hersfeld, Rheinberg, Werne and Koblenz.

Verdi representative Orhan Akman said on Sunday: "We have information that at least 30 to 40 colleagues were infected,".

Near Beijing, 500,000 people are in mandatory lockdown again.

The Chinese government has announced that the number of new Covid-19 infections in the capital city has risen again and the city of Anxin will now be "fully locked and controlled". Only one person per household is allowed to go outside to buy groceries and medicine.

The world has reached two milestones during the Covid-19 pandemic. Over 10,000,000 people worldwide have now been tested positive for Covid-19, of which over 5,400,000 have already been recovered. In total over 500,000 have now died from the coronavirus.

United Nations secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, Sir Mark Lowcock has stated that he has "worked on Yemen for many years now, seeing many bad moments. This is the darkest moment I have ever seen" as the country battles the Covid-19 pandemic and starvation. People are forced to stay at home and can not afford food anymore. He states that the Yemen operation is in funding danger as donor nations are cutting the money amidst the Covid-19 recession that has hit their own economies. Sir Mark Lowcock stated that "We raised lots of money for it last year. More than $3 billion, and that enabled us to feed 13 million people a month. Now the money has fallen away".

The Brazilian government has announced on Saturday that it will start producing an experimental Covid-19 vaccine locally. The government has signed an agreement worth $127 million with AstraZeneca who developed the experimental vaccine. According to the World Health Organization the vaccine is considered the world's leading candidate which has been developed by researchers at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Human trials are still undergoing and final proof of the effect against Covid-19 is still pending.

Disney postponed the debut of its live-action movie Mulan to August 21. The picture was originally scheduled to debut in March but was moved to July 24 when the Covid-19 pandemic forced movie theaters around the world to close.

France's government reports 1588 new Coronavirus cases in one single day on Friday. The country averaged around 500 daily cases in the past week and around 430 daily cases since May 30th.

The 2020 Super League season will resume on August 2. The first round after the pause will have Hull KR facing Toronto Wolfpack, St Helens against Catalans Dragons and Huddersfield versus Leeds, with all matches being played behind closed doors at a single venue.

Super League Board decided the season to have 15 rounds of matches followed by a semi-final play-off, with the winners of the semi-finals will contest the Betfred Super League Grand Final, taking place towards the end of November 2020.

Dr Raniere Guerra, assistant director-general for strategic initiatives for the WHO, warns of a devasting second wave of Covid-19 infections that could cause millions of deaths, comparing Covid-19 with the Spanish Flu. The comparison is with the Spanish Flu, which behaved exactly like Covid: it went down in the summer and fiercely resumed in September and October, creating 50 million deaths during the second wave," so Dr Guerra.

In a press conference on Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a temporary pause on reopening measures amid a surge in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations. The state reported almost 6,000 new cases on Thursday and a record high for Covid-19 hospitalisations.

"The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses. This temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business," so the Governor.

The Senegalese President Macky Sall went into self-quarantine for two weeks as a precaution. He had contact with someone who was tested positive for the Coronavirus, but Sall himself had a negative test result. Senegal has over 6100 cases so far.

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to declare the Medicaid program established under president Obama unconstitutional. The administration aims to eliminate medical insurance coverage for 20 million Americans with low enough incomes to qualify for the program. At this point, the White House has not proposed an alternative solution in case they succeed in court.

The consortium of Brazilian media companies, compiling data from state health authorities, announced Thursday Brazil recorded 40,673 new confirmed cases of the Covid-19 in the past 24 hours as well as 1,180 deaths.

The country has now a death toll of 55,054, and 1,233,147 confirmed cases.

Lufthansa shareholders voted in favour of a €9 billion bailout from the German government on Thursday, following a tense week in which Heinz Hermann, the company's most significant shareholder, threatened to block the deal.

"We have no more money," Chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley told shareholders. "We are living from the reserves we set aside. Without support, bankruptcy looms in the next few days."

Ryanair announced it plans to challenge the deal through European courts.

From next month on Ireland is planning to ease the quarantine restrictions for travelers from other countries that have low infection rates. According to a memo of the Irish Cabinet, a "mandatory restricted movement" will be kept in place for travelers from countries with high levels of Covid-19 infections. It is "highly likely" that this will include the United Kingdom because of its "significantly poorer" response to the pandemic.